Play-off s/f v. Boreham Wood (match-thread)

[andycapp]

484 fans for Boreham Wood in the biggest match of their
70 years.

How many will they take to Wembley?

[skillspaybills]

Sad end to a fine season. Luke Garrard's men did what they had to do and saw it out. Congrats to them and good luck..

The opening 45 was everything I feared tbh. Hot day, slow start with no real rhythm or patterns of play established and Wood getting ahead.

Terrell Thomas was one of only players who puffed his chest out and said give me the ball in that first half. I really rate that lad and hope he would stay with us to continue football education/career. A few looked extremely tense and off the pace today..

Second half we huffed and puffed but anytime we built any form of pressure the referee would stop the game for cramp smh. However their third goal isn't acceptable defending (ball watching), not sure how second happened.

I agree I'd like to of seen Ross with Tommy who's service was hoofed balls up to him and Josh T but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Originally I had no complaints about line up. Then again I had hoped the hoofball had been left back in last months poor form.

I think we need to recruit in full back areas in summer. Think that's an area that has held us back this season. Louis cross for Ross header was a beauty however but I'd like to see Louis go back to CB next season.

The boys fought to the very end, it was just one of those days.

Anyways have a great summer all. Looking forward to Conifa games down the Lane.

[garethl]

Obviously very disappointed. Like everyone would have loved to see us play at Wembley and today was such a good opportunity. Boreham Wood deserved it on the day but were completely out on their feet for the last 20 minutes. Our 1st half display was below par, we were 2nd to too much. The goal we conceded was extremely poor. Ref was so picky 2nd half and just made it very hard to build up momentum, very anti the game imo. To stop an attack for cramp doesn’t seem to be in the rule book to me (isn’t it just head injuries or something obviously serious?), else someone could drop down on every counter attack! The overtime was also very short considering the numerous lengthy delays.

It’s clear we’ve had an amazing year and just being in the play offs is an incredible achievement. That said there is that tinge of disappointment as you never know when or if we will ever get that chance again.

Thankful as ever for all who helped the day run so smoothly, our wonderful group of volunteers and of course the players/management for their hard work over the season.

[Amber Aleman]

And so our play-off woes continue. I make that seven play-off matches in which Sutton have competed, with not a single win from any of them. I don't believe in jinxes, and I'm confident that this run won't continue indefinitely. But the lesson we learned from failures in the Ryman League then Conference South is that finishing top of the pile is the only surefire way of getting promoted.

We started today in a 4-5-1 formation, with Tommy up top. Whilst that did have the effect of containing Boreham Wood for 40 minutes, we struggled to get telling balls through to Tommy or Tom, our most likely outlets. Tom did swap wings with Josh after a while, but this made little difference. Then BW attacked down our left, Aswad lost out to Balanta who was given a clear sight of goal and drilled the ball into the far corner.

Dos switched to 4-4-2 for the second half, bringing on Ross L and Kieron for Aswad and Harry, but we barely had time to see any improvement before BW went 2-0 up, Ross heading their free kick into his own net. Unfortunate maybe, but the concession of the fk, out near the touchline, looked needless. That really put us up against it, and, rather than mounting an immediate fightback, we just seemed to lose shape and momentum for a ten-minute period. As the BW players began to tire (and timewaste) we started to claw our way back into the contest, winning some corners, and eventually grabbing a goal back when Tom headed in Kieron's cute fk. That good work was undone five minutes later with some naive defending of another BW fk, the ball spinnning up off the bar then dropping back into play with our defenders too slow to react and presenting Folivi with a tap-in. That was effectively game over, although Ross did pull another one back in the seven minutes of added time, and we came agonisingly close to an equaliser in the final moment.

Amidst the obvious disappointment, there are dollops of comfort. There will be relief that we don't have to take up the 3G pitch this year. We can all take immense pride from ending the season in third place, the club's best-ever finish. And if Tranmere end up winning the play-off final, we go into next season knowing that all of our league opponents, barring the two clubs relegated from League Two, finished below us in 2018.

[VCLXI]

Just got home. What a shame. Still, after the season Sutton have had, finishing the highest they ever have in the highest division they've ever been in, I don't think too many people can complain.

A totally shambolic refereeing display didn't help coupled with the blatant play acting and time wasting by the Boreham Wood players didn't exactly make for an end to end game.

I was standing smack bang on the halfway line on the Collingwood Rec side and I'm convinced there was never a free kick for Boreham Wood's 3rd. It looked like a perfectly timed tackle. Plus, if it was a foul why was only a yellow shown? I also reckon the guy was offside with the pass anyway.

But, although disappointed I'd like to congratulate Paul Doswell and all the players and management on when we look back an incredible season.

[amberclart]

Ouch, this defeat hurts badly, we didn't seem to be up for it until it was too late but credit to the boys for giving it a go at the end.....the ref was shocking btw and some of his decisions were mystifying (stopping play when a B-Wood player went down with cramp springs to mind, what the heck?) and he should have added at least 15 minutes extra time for all the stoppages/drinks breaks/time wasting but there it is.........I want to thank Paul Doswell, Bruce the chairman, all the backroom staff and especially all the players for giving me and my mates a season I could never have dreamed of and some brilliant memories, you are all heroes and I can't wait till next season kicks off.

Thank You lads.

[Del]

Well we had a great last 10 mins today. Sadly we didn't match BW for most of the game .

Our highest ever finish in the National League and we must be pleased with that.

[timbo]

May 6, 2018 19:51:13 GMT VCLXI said:

Just got home. What a shame. Still, after the season Sutton have had, finishing the highest they ever have in the highest division they've ever been in, I don't think too many people can complain.

A totally shambolic refereeing display didn't help coupled with the blatant play acting and time wasting by the Boreham Wood players didn't exactly make for an end to end game.

I was standing smack bang on the halfway line on the Collingwood Rec side and I'm convinced there was never a free kick for Boreham Wood's 3rd. It looked like a perfectly timed tackle. Plus, if it was a foul why was only a yellow shown? I also reckon the guy was offside with the pass anyway.

But, although disappointed I'd like to congratulate Paul Doswell and all the players and management on when we look back an incredible season.

From the replay I saw, not 100% but it looked like a foul

[VCLXI]

Thanks, I haven't seen it back. But the question still stands that if it was a foul why wasn't the card red?

[garethl]

My guess is the ref thought there was additional cover, there was someone else tracking in fairly close proximity. On another day for sure he could have gone with red.

[VCLXI]

Or if he thought there was a slight chance of offside. All ifs and buts and let's face it, doesn't really matter. I'll still cherish this season.

[Del]

No chance of off side.He was in his own half when he received the ball.

[os]

May 6, 2018 20:46:35 GMT VCLXI said:

Thanks, I haven't seen it back. But the question still stands that if it was a foul why wasn't the card red?

I was lucky enough to have the live feed which was meant for our non working scoreboard, TomB does get the ball 1st, the only question is if the ref felt he went through the Wood player to get it, but from the slow mo TV replays it looks a excellent tackle.

I didn't think the ref was great today, didn't seem to have a clue about game management and gamesmanship, no blame attached to Wood but they certainly got away with mugging the guy off.

With that said we really didn't turn up until the last 15-20, we didn't play our game and get the ball working on the deck to stretch their big guys. We got sucked into an Ariel battle that we didn't have the personnel on the pitch to win. Over the 90mins we actually had more shots then they did, and really should have scored before their opener.

Boreham Wood have always been good at their style, very good defensively and with a little agility in front of goal, you have got to move the ball around them, and not play high balls to the likes of Wright. I like many feel disappointed tonight, but no dejected. We have had a great season, the highest ever finish in the clubs history, 95th in the pyramid, with only 2 ex league clubs above us.

In reality our club needs to build on these foundations, with our playoff record we probably need to actually win the league to get promoted. But one thing we now know is that EFL really is a possibility for our little club, and is incredible when you think a decade ago with lost 3-0 at GGL to Cambridge City in front of 350 people and relegated to the Ryman league.

The journey is not over and neither is the dream, we just got up in the middle of the night for a Pee

[guildrover]

Gutted in the end but we showed up to the party too late.

Boreham Wood deserved it based on the whole game and seemed to want it more than us. They closed us down early and chased every second ball. Good luck to them on Saturday.

I didn't feel too despondent after the game, certainly not like I did after the Dover Athletic and Kingstonian play off defeats and I think that is because I feel the National League is currently our level and we still need to grow more as a club.

Bruce Elliott once said at the end of each season he looks at what progress we have made on and off the pitch as to whether it has been a good season and it has been a great season in both regards.

There are still things we need to do off the pitch to progress further and still stuff Dos and his staff will be learning about this level to help improve the team for next season.

Ten years ago we had been relegated to the Ryman Premier and today we were 180 minutes away from the football league. Keep believing, keep supporting, keep progressing.

[garethl]

Anyone on here know why there was a section barriered off on the main stand side? Couldn’t think of a good reason!